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A Walk In The Park

--- Some clarifications: ------------------
- There is no "goal" to achieve in this game, this is more of a 3-minutes experience
- Just take a walk in the park with your dog, and let the story unfold
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Hello community!

For my third participation to a LudumDare, I decided to explore yet another genre.

After an action-platformer (LD22) and a puzzle-game (LD23), it was now time to make an attempt to create a moody experience for the player.

Since this is my first attempt to the genre, I would love to know what you think about it :) (also, leaving a comment will ensure that I play YOUR game. A win/win trade right?)

I used Flixel, my old synthesizer and audacity, and tons of dam... hem... tons of coffee!

Oh! Despite what your first impression could be, there is a link to evolution in this entry. I added a link explaining it, but please, play the game first!

I should also mention Jordan Magnusen and his game "Loneliness" (http://bit.ly/cfFfxM) as it was my main inspiration for this entry.

I like the music and found it nice and relaxing walking with the dog. For a minute I was thinking it'd be nice to have a dog irl but then I lost it and realised I'd be a terribly irresponsable owner and decided against it.

Great relaxing mood to the game and got a pang of loss when the little fella ran away. Might be nice if you had to stop it chasing cats or throw sticks or something but it's got a good mood to it as it is.

I think this could be a great game. I really wanted more to happen...I'm not sure if I completely got it but it invoked something from me, in a good way. There must be more to the expressions from people and how to respond to that. Right?

Anyway, human emotion, a hint of exploration, cool ambiance and music. so overall I thought it was very good. Nicely done!

This is not really a game, nor this is hardly an interractive story : for what I can tell, the story is yours to imagine.

You start the game not knowing what to do... and before you know it, the screen is black, a single happy face pops for a seconde, and you are left with an odd feeling.
What was that all about?
Strangly, my 2nd playthrough (after reading the spoiler and comments) left me with a real sensation of loss. I guess this is because I was "supposed" to feel that way.

I think this worked well because both the audio and the pacing were very well done:
- Playing a few notes when something happens in the game is a VERY nice touch. They fit the music perfectly and capture the meaning of the action.
- The dog disappears just when you stop running around with him, and you are given enough time to experience the loss before the screen turns black (but not too much time)

Also I agree with the comment saying you should add more interractions, especially with the dog. This could lead players to forge a stronger bound with the dog and actually "get" the meaning of the game on the first try.

Really great atmosphere and mood. I only realized that the dog was mine on the second playthrough, but once I lost it, and got to the ending, I was really sad. The dog is always as loyal to you as he can be, and when you both stray too far, I imagine the dog is also running around frantically trying to find you :(
Great message. I'm glad that even though my dog is living with a family friend, she has loving friends and won't get separated from them.

First playthrough I thought it was just a random dog so I had no idea what was going on. After reading the spoiler, the mood was much greater. It a simple mechanic but it gives the same companion feeling that Ico and Shadow of Colossus has. Well done on setting the mood. The music is very subtle and I liked the tunes when showing emotions.

It's a pretty short game, but I really liked what you had. The sounds were great, and I really liked how you could express your feelings and have 'conversations' with strangers and have them feel bad for you. I also really liked how you totally understood what these conversations were about, even though you only had 3 ways of expressing your thoughts and feelings.

Well, I dunno about this one. I actually ran away from my dog on purpose because there was seemingly nothing else to do. I think if the experience as a little more detailed - it might potentially have more impact. Nice music though!

At first, I didn't get it at all. I ran it once, read the explanation, and still didn't get it. Ran it again, and the dog followed me every time I called him, so I was ready to call it quits. I felt like this was nothing special and I completely didn't get your explanation at all.
And then I ran it again, just to check something. I went to the park, with the dog following me, and then I let it go off-screen just for the sake of it. And only THEN I understood what did you mean. I ran around the place, calling the dog, but it vanished. Quite a sad experience, I must say.

Why the happy face when the screen turns black? :( Overall, the entry has the player perplexed as to what are your intentions as author, so the unexpected mood kicks in perfectly, if the player can relate to the problem (I suspect many people can). I'd say that "evolution" theme was a little forced here, but in the "mood" department you definitely earned plenty of stars. Simple graphics were fine and the audio was quite good. I think that the game would actually be better without any explanation, but probably less people would figure out what to do to get through the full experience.